Summoning the Night (Arcadia Bell #2) by Jenn Bennett

MAGICAL TRICKS. DEMONIC TREATS.

After narrowly escaping her fate as a sacrificial scapegoat, Arcadia Bell is back to normal. Or at least as ordinary as life can be for a renegade magician and owner of a tiki bar that caters to Earthbound demons. She’s gearing up for the busiest day of the year—Halloween—when a vengeful kidnapper paralyzes the community.

The influential head of the local Hellfire Club taps Cady to track down the fiendish bogeyman, and now that she’s dating red-hot Lon Butler, the Club’s wayward son, she can hardly say no. Cady and Lon untangle a gruesome thirty-year trail of clues that points to danger for the club members’ children. But locating the person behind the terror will require some metaphysical help from Cady’s loyal bar patrons as well as her potent new Moonchild powers—and she’d better figure it out before the final victim disappears and her own darkest secret becomes her biggest enemy.

I think I enjoyed this one a bit more than the first book, Kindling the Moon. It is also a book I believe you should read in order because of all the magical details involved in this world. It would just make this book read much more smoothly.

This book was as much fun as the first and doesn't get slowed down too much by detail. Well, there are a couple of times when this does happen, but they are necessary in understanding what is going on and personally I didn't mind it. It does move much faster than the first book and I have to say the characters were as fun in this book, if not more so.

Lon is still the hottie we knew him in the first. Still that great father to Jupe. Oh and Jupe... just as sweet and as ADHD as ever! In a way he really brings out the humanity in all the characters especially Lon and Cady. There are also twists as there were in the first book and it doesn't quite end up as you suspect. That is a good thing.

My only complaint was the situation with Dare. To not give anything away, let me just say that this situation just didn't ring true on how Cady would handle things. Plus where was Lon? I didn't think he would stand for it either, but then again, we aren't sure how much he knows. I figure despite my criticism, I will reserve complete judgement until the next book. Things may happen to make me slap my head and declare, "I get it!" I can totally see me doing that so I shall be prepared and wear a helmet when reading the next book (which I want like NOW). Oh and yes, I'm totally evil laughing at your question as to what happened. You know I'm not telling.

I give this book 4 stars. Lovers of UF with a good dose of PNR will enjoy this book.

I received this book from the publisher and no compensation for my review was given.